A Brief History of Business Journalism

Business information was generally available in the popular coffeehouses of London and New York in the 18th and early 19th centuries simply by people talking to each other. Those conversations gave rise to printed news pamphlets and eventually newspapers. The Financial Times was founded in 1888; and The Wall Street Journal, still America’s biggest selling newspaper, came out a year later. So it was business and trade that helped create the journalistic profession of which you are—or wish to be—part.

As trade began to rapidly increase, the great institutions began to grow. The coffeehouses were no longer good enough or reliable enough for trade purposes, so The Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange, ...

Get Business Journalism: How to Report on Business and Economics now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.